Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Author: John Scalzo
Xbox Store Today: Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Minecraft Story Mode Ep6, Soul Axiom, more
“Follow Faith, a daring free runner, as she fights for freedom in the city of Glass.”
This short sentence should be enough to put a smile on the face of anyone who was a fan of 2008’s Mirror’s Edge. And that’s because Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst is now available to download for the Xbox One through the Xbox Games Store. Also now available to download is the continuing adventures of Jesse and his/her Order of the Stone in Minecraft: Story Mode. Telltale released the sixth episode, “A Portal To Mystery,” this week, and future episodes will be available soon.
Finally this week, Wales Interactive’s first-person adventure game, Soul Axiom, has been added to the Xbox Games Store for the Xbox One. Billed as a “cyber-thriller” by the developer, Soul Axiom will give players the chance to solve puzzles, manipulate the environment, and explore their digital afterlife.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Minecraft: Story Mode, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue will be released in December
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue is an absolute mouthful of a title, but Square Enix is finally ready to announce that their remake of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance will be released exclusively for the PS4 in December. The publisher also unveiled a brand new trailer for the game ahead of next week’s E3 Expo, and it’s been embedded above.
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue will help set the stage for Kingdom Hearts III, and so it’ll also include “Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage,” a playable continuation of Birth By Sleep’s story, as well as “Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover,” a mini-movie focusing on the events of the mobile-only Kingdom Hearts X.
Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts III remains a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue
Ubisoft officially unveils Watch Dogs 2 with a new trailer and November 15 release date
Hack the Planet! Hack the Planet!
I’m getting a distinctly Hackers vibe from Watch Dogs 2, which was officially announced by Ubisoft this morning. Hackers is a tad ridiculous, but its concept of “hackers as superheroes” clearly lives on in Watch Dogs 2. The second game in the series is heading for the coast, and Ubisoft has confirmed that Watch Dogs 2 will take place in San Francisco. It’s new location also paves the way for a new main character, Marcus Holloway, though players won’t just be limited to “The City by the Bay.” They’ll also be able to explore the surrounding area including Oakland, Marin County, and (of course) Silicon Valley.:
Players will explore the birthplace of the tech revolution as Marcus Holloway, a brilliant young hacker who has fallen victim to ctOS 2.0’s predictive algorithms and is accused of a crime he did not commit. In Marcus’ quest to shut down ctOS 2.0 for good, hacking is the ultimate weapon, and players can not only hack into the city’s infrastructure but also every person and any connected device they possess, to trigger unpredictable chains of events. With the ability to take control of drones, cars, cranes, security robots and much more at their disposal, players can choose whether to use stealth hacking to complete missions without killing a single enemy or go guns blazing for a more ferocious approach.
Prospective players won’t have to wait long to try out Watch Dogs 2… it’ll be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November 15. As part of their big marketing push, Ubisoft will release Watch Dogs 2 in three different versions including a Deluxe Edition (the game plus a Deluxe Pack of in-game customization items), a Gold Edition (everything in the Deluxe Edition plus the Season Pass), and a Collector’s Edition which includes a Wrench Junior robot that’s controllable through a mobile app. Everyone who pre-order Watch Dogs 2 will receive the exclusive “Zodiac Killer” bonus mission.
But in the more immediate future, Ubisoft plans to bring Watch Dogs 2 to next week’s E3 Expo in a big way, starting with an informative dive into the game’s new features on the UbiBlog and a “World Premiere” livestream, which has been embedded after the break. (more…)
Here’s an E3 2016 trailer for Yooka-Laylee… but Playtonic pushed it back to Early 2017
Playtonic Games is hard at work on Yooka-Laylee, their loving tribute to the “Collect-Em-Ups” of the late 90s/early 2000s like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. But it looks like that hard work is going to take a little more time, as Playtonic has confirmed Yooka-Laylee won’t be released this October as originally planned. Instead, the developer revealed (on their official website) that it’ll be released for the PC, PS4, Wii U, and Xbox One early next year:
While we felt confident we could ship the game in October as originally projected in our Kickstarter, the Playtonic team has decided that it would prefer to add a few extra months’ polish to the game schedule.
Ultimately, this will allow us to deliver a better game to the tens-of-thousands of you who’ve supported us throughout development. And that’s what we all want, right?
While Yooka-Laylee is a bit further away now than it was before, Playtonic plans to bring their work-in-progress game to next week’s E3 Expo, so we should learn more about it soon. In the meantime, you can check out the game’s E3 trailer, which has been embedded above.
NetherRealm officially announces Injustice 2 ahead of E3 2016
All the teases and leaks in the world can’t take away from an impressive Announcement Trailer… and that’s just what NetherRealm has given us for Injustice 2. Set to be released for the PS4 and Xbox One in 2017, Injustice 2 revives a dark corner of the DC Universe… where a deranged Superman plots to return to his role as the supreme leader of Earth:
Injustice 2 continues the epic cinematic story introduced in Injustice: Gods Among Us as Batman and his allies work towards putting the pieces of society back together while struggling against those who want to restore Superman’s regime. In the midst of the chaos, a new threat appears that will put Earth’s existence at risk.
Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and The Flash will return for a second round of fighting, alongside newcomers like Supergirl and villains such as Atrocitus and Gorilla Grodd. But regardless of who you pick, players will be able to customize the characters in Injustice 2 like never before. According to NetherRealm, players can “personalize iconic DC characters with unique and powerful gear earned throughout the game,” as well as “take control of how their characters look, fight, and develop across a variety of game modes.”
We’ll likely learn more about Injustice 2 during next week’s E3 Expo.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2016, Injustice 2
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night backers will get access to the E3 demo… and everybody else gets a new trailer
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is still almost a year away, but Koji “IGA” Igarashi is ready to give fans and friends a look at the game’s first level in a new trailer. Here’s what he had to say about the video in Bloodstained’s latest Kickstarter update (which also includes some new screenshots):
For this month’s update, the team has put together a video and some screenshots of an actual stage in Bloodstained. This is the game’s first stage, where we find Miriam on a ship, the Galleon Minerva, headed toward the castle. It’s a setting filled with anticipation.
Igarashi, and his team at Inti Creates, are planning to debut the first demo for Bloodstained at next week’s E3 Expo. But you won’t need to sneak into Los Angeles Convention Center to get your hands on it… everyone who pledged at least $60 during the game’s Kickstarter campaign will receive access to the demo through Steam.
If all continues to go well for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the side-scrolling MetroidVania should be released for the PC, PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One sometime next Spring.
PS Store Today: Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Odin Sphere HD, Minecraft Story Mode Ep6, more
Prepare to return to long-forgotten worlds in today’s PlayStation Store update.
Electronic Arts and DICE have resurrected the city of Glass for Faith to freerun once more. In Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst (PS4), players will learn about the origin behind Faith’s rebellious nature while leaping between skyscrapers to stop an oppressive government.
It hasn’t been gone quite as long, but Telltale Games is already set to return to Minecraft: Story Mode with the unexpected sixth episode, A Portal to Mystery, which is now available to download on the PS4 and PS3.
Speaking of games that’ll be available on both of Sony’s home consoles, we have Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir from Atlus and Vanillaware. Also available to download for the Vita, Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir is the remake of a side-scrolling RPG originally released for the PS2 in 2007.
Image & Form is a big fan of the side-scrolling aesthetic, and the developer will release its side-scrolling strategy game, SteamWorld Heist, for the PS4 and Vita this week. The space saga, which is Cross-Buy on the PS4 and Vita, originally made its debut on the 3DS last year.
Finally this week, Double Fine will add the original Psychonauts to the PS2-On-PS4 program. While progress on the crowdfunded sequel continues, players will get a chance to re-experience all the zaniness of Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp in Raz’s original adventure.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. And, as always, a complete rundown of this week’s new add-ons and discounts is available at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Minecraft: Story Mode, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, Odin Sphere, Psychonauts, SteamWorld Heist
XCOM 2 will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One on September 6
Prepare for invasion! After making a successful debut on the PC earlier this year, 2K Games and Firaxis have announced they’ll release XCOM 2 for the PS4 and Xbox One on September 6. The console port will be handled by The Workshop, a development house that has previously assisted Tango Gameworks on The Evil Within and Gearbox on Borderlands 2.
“Firaxis has successfully enhanced the XCOM franchise, as XCOM 2 has earned both massive critical and fan acclaim,” said Matt Gorman, the Vice President of Marketing for 2K. “Many console gamers have been vocal about bringing XCOM 2 to their platforms, and now they can look forward to joining the resistance this September.”
“The incredible reception of XCOM 2 has been rewarding and humbling for the team, and we’ve known console fans have been clamoring to play the game too,” said Jake Solomon, XCOM 2’s Creative Director. “As avid console players ourselves, we’re excited to work with The Workshop to bring XCOM 2 to all of our fans.”
Players who pre-order XCOM 2 on the PS4 or Xbox One will receive the Resistance Warrior Pack, which includes additional soldier customization options such as additional outfits and headgear, as well as custom facial war paint. The Resistance Warrior Pack also features the “Survivor of the Old War,” a special XCOM recruit who will appear in the barracks. Players who opt for the XCOM 2 Digital Deluxe Edition will also receive the Resistance Warrior Pack, along with the Reinforcement Pack, which includes all previously-released downloadable content for the strategy game.